Family Barbecue
by bri617
Summary: But instead of looking at their liaison, they were greeted by a little girl. They all stared at the girl's blonde curls and ocean blue eyes in complete shock. Could this be…? "Emma, what did mommy and daddy tell you about opening the door alone? You never know who's out…" Deeks' voice trailed off when he opened the door fully. "What are you guys doing here?" ONESHOT


**A/N: Well, hello everybody :) So I wrote this story before the Season 4 Finale as kind of my own version of therapy to deal with all the things that were going through my head after seeing the trailer and the sneak peeks (which btw I'll never do again, it just made me go craaazy)  
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**But enough of my rambling, this is just a quick fluffy oneshot. It's set somewhere in Season 4, probably after Purity bur before Resurrection. Also, it's slightly AU, and I guess even though Deeks is mostly in character, Kensi is more OOC**

**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters belong to CBS or Shane Brennan or someone else that is not me. My four original characters do however belong to me ;)**

**A/N 2: I changed some minor things that hopefully improve the reading flow (e.g. did some formatting; Mary is now Carrie because I realized that I always read Marty and that was kind of annoying; and I changed the ending a tiny bit because I wasn't sure if the significance of what is being said was coming across the way I intended it to)**

**I hope you enjoy. If you do, please leave a review :)**

**Family Barbecue**

"Are you sure Deeks doesn't have plans today? And when did he move here anyway?" Nell asked the brunette agent next to her, eyeing the house in front of them. It was small but looked like it had been redone recently and was situated in a very good neighborhood.

"About a week ago. I didn't know about it until he asked me to help unpack boxes," Kensi answered and shrugged, "And he said he was just gonna do some more unpacking and cleaning today, but it seems like he has guests," She motioned to the car in his driveway.

"We could do this some other time," Eric chimed in.

"Nonsense. If he doesn't get around to tell us about moving, let alone fail to invite us to a housewarming party, we just have to become active and invite ourselves. If we keep creeping around in front of his house like this, though, someone will probably call neighborhood watch or something." Callen decided, shifting the two six packs of beer uncomfortably in his arms.

"I'm with Mr. Callen on this one."

"Okay let's do this then," Sam said and picked up a cooler and made his way purposefully across Deeks' front lawn. Everybody else followed quickly. Not wanting to miss the shocked expression once the detective would open the door.

Upon ringing the doorbell there was a moment of silence before the door was opened a few inches. But instead of looking at their liaison, they were greeted by a blonde haired girl, not older than three who was struggling to reach the door handle with her one hand while trying to keep her plastic tiara in place on her head with the other. They all stared at the girl's blonde curls and ocean blue eyes in complete shock. Could this be…

It was only a second later when they all snapped out of their daze upon hearing a familiar voice from the inside. "Emma, what did mommy and daddy tell you about opening the door alone? You never know who's out…" his voice trailed off when Deeks opened the door fully, keeping one hand protectively on the girl's shoulder. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked, his voice laced with confusion.

"Uh, surprise?" Nell was the first to answer but her voice made it sound like more of a question than a statement.

Callen jumped in quickly, "We figured since you didn't invite us to a housewarming party we'd have to take matters into our own hands. So here we are with enough spare ribs, steaks and beer to feed twenty people and we were kind of hoping you'd let us in; Kensi might've mentioned that you have a really nice barbecue grill. But if you don't want us I'm sure we can find another place to go and get rid off all this amazing food," he finished with a cheeky grin, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

"Uhm, well," Deeks started before he was cut off by a female voice from the inside, making his head turn quickly in that direction.

"Marty, honey, who's at the door?"

"Just a few friends who wanted to surprise me," he called back into the house.

"Oh that sounds great. They can join us, invite them in. The more, the merrier."

He turned his head back slowly toward his colleagues that were now grinning at him for some reason. "What?" he asked bluntly.

"Hey Deeks, why are you wearing a crown?" Kensi asked before everybody broke out into a loud round of laughter.

"What? Oh," he grinned, "You'll see soon enough. Come on in, guys." He opened the door completely and motioned for them to enter.

"Wait!"

Everybody stopped in their tracks when the little girl spoke, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. She turned around to Deeks who immediately crouched down next to her with a worried expression.

"What's wrong, honey?"

"I don't," _sniff_, "want them," _sob_," here. You said this was a family barbecue." She sobbed again, while a tear made its way down her cheek.

Deeks smiled at her and ran his thumb across her cheek to catch the tears. "But they are really nice and they even brought food."

"I still don't want them here," she mumbled and buried her face in his stomach wrapping her little arms around him.

Deeks looked up from her shaking frame and shot an apologetic look to his team.

"Can we help somehow?" Kensi asked quietly.

Deeks just shook his before a big smile spread out on his face.

"Are you sure that you don't want them here? Because, you know, they are actually all princes and princesses, too. Just like you and me, and they came from all over the city to visit us."

"Really?" Emma looked up at him with big eyes.

Deeks nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, really. Do you want me to introduce you to them?"

She nodded in reply before Deeks scooped her up so that she was sitting on his right hip.

"Alright, so over here we have Prince Callen. He speaks a lot of different languages and has travelled around the whole world." A smile spread across Emma's face upon hearing that.

"Then we have Prince Sam."

"He's really big."

Deeks chuckled. "Yes, he is. And he's really strong, too. He can fight any dragon that is out there and he can protect us all with his strength."

He motioned to Eric next. "This is Prince Eric, he's a very modern prince. He knows all about computers and new technology."

"Then we have Princess Nell, she's really, really, really smart. Probably the smartest person I know."

"Smarter than me?"

"Mhhh, it's a close call but yeah, I think she's a liiiiiittle smarter."

"Wow." The little girl's astounded look gained her a round of chuckles.

"Are you ready for the next one?" She quickly nodded. "Okay this one is very special. She's Queen Hetty."

"Queen? She's really a queen?" Emma exclaimed, wriggling in his arm excitedly. Hetty smiled up at her and nodded her head.

"Yup, she's really a queen. And she holds us all together and tells us what to do. She knows almost everything and whenever someone needs our help she sends us to help them."

By this time the little girl was literally beaming, forgotten were the tears from just a few minutes ago, instead her eyes were sparkling with amazement.

"And last but not least we have Princess Kensi. She can do almost anything, except for telling jokes that is. She's really strong and she protects me all the time and…"

"And she's really pretty," Emma suddenly cut in.

"And she's really pretty," Deeks confirmed smiling broadly. "So what do you think? Can they come in and join us for our barbecue?"

"Yes, but only if they wear crowns and tiaras, too. I can show them around."

Deeks set her back down and she immediately took Nell's hand into hers and dragged her inside. Everybody else followed closely behind them. Kensi was the last one to make it inside. She hesitantly stopped next to him.

"Soooo, is there anything you wanna share with us, Deeks?" She asked, her eyebrows raised, looking after the group of adults that were slowly led through the living room towards the sliding doors that led out to his terrace. From her new vantage point she could see two women and a man standing at the barbecue.

The detective crossed his arms in front of his chest and cocked his head slightly to the side. "I don't think so, Kensalina."

"So she's not… I mean you're not her… you know…" She started, but trailed off not being able to voice her thoughts.

Opposite of her, Deeks was clearly enjoying her growing discomfort. He shot her a cheeky grin. "She's not my… what, Fern?"

A blush crept slowly up her cheeks. This shouldn't be so hard, right? If she looked at the situation logically, there was just _no_ way that the girl was his… Good god, she couldn't even get the word out in her head. She would've known if her partner had a… daughter… There it was. She felt a little pang in her heart. Surely she would've known… right? Deeks just wouldn't be able to keep a secret like that. _Someone _would have known about it. But then again the girl looked a _lot_ like him, with those blue eyes and the golden locks. But before she could come up with a way to ask him, said blonde girl came running back to them, screaming in delight.

"Uncle Marty! I found a tiara for Princess Kensi." She beamed up at both of them, holding out the piece of plastic to Deeks. "Can you put it on her head?"

Deeks took it and stepped closer to Kensi, his grin stretching from ear to ear now. Of course he knew full well what she had assumed. It wasn't the first time that people thought he was Emma's father when they were out together. But it was still fun to watch his partner squirm for a while. It didn't slip his attention how her whole posture visibly relaxed when she heard the word "uncle". Only for the tension to come back as soon as he invaded her personal space by standing unnecessarily close to her. He stared down at her, suppressing the chuckle that rose in his throat when he saw that she was intently avoiding to look up and instead seemed to have found a particularly interesting spot on his t-shirt just below the neck line.

Slowly he set down the tiara on her brown locks, eliciting an almost imperceptible gasp from the woman in front of him. He could feel her hot breath on his throat, the puffs of air coming out a little faster than usually. His fingers still lingered midair around the edges of the tiara, while his mind was completely lost in the moment. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, it could've been only seconds or several minutes, but finally Kensi raised her head in what felt like slow motion. Their eyes took only a nanosecond to lock on each other. In that moment Deeks thought that she looked so much younger, looking up under her long dark lashes with her mismatched eyes opened wide and with an almost shy expression on her face. There was really only one word to describe her: _beautiful_.

That's when her eyes widened even more and she took a shaky breath. In that same moment, he realized with slight horror that he had said his last thought out loud.

"Deeks." Her voice was barely above a whisper and he could feel her breath mingling with his as they stood merely an inch apart. She couldn't move, hell, she didn't _want_ to move. She was so close to him that she could feel the heat radiating from his body even through all their clothes. It felt good. It felt _right_. She was completely lost in the stormy ocean that was his eyes. Somehow they seemed darker and yet clearer than usual. And there was something in them that she couldn't quite put her finger on. And dear god, when he had uttered that one word. His voice husky and barely audible, but still clear enough not to be mistaken for something else. She couldn't hold back a little gasp. Just the way he was looking directly in her eyes when he said it. His face showing nothing but raw emotions, gone was his cheeky grin, instead it had been replaced by a small, honest to god and -dare she say- completely enamored smile.

Then there were his hands that had dropped from her hair to either side of her head. When did that happen? They were so close to her cheeks that she could feel the comfortable warmth radiating from them, penetrating her skin and sending small shivers through her whole body. If he only moved them a little bit, just a little bit closer, then she could feel those long fingers on her skin. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was sure that he could feel it, too. But in that moment she couldn't bring herself to care. She didn't care if he knew what effect he had on her; just his mere proximity had turned her usual confident self into a mushy pile of nerves. He wasn't even touching her and yet hundreds of butterflies were having a full on party in her stomach. Just knowing that his lips were so close to hers made her want to lean up and kiss him to show him just how he made her feel. Show him how one word had turned her world upside down.

"Kens." His voice matched hers as he tried to regain some control over the situation. What was the protocol for something like this? Should he apologize? Laugh it off? Play it cool? God, she drove him crazy. She made him lose control. With only a whisper of his name she had him wrapped around her finger. And _damn_, if that wasn't single-handedly the sexiest thing he had ever heard. He had to suppress a groan thinking about another setting in which she would say his name like that, definitely with a lot less clothes on.

"Uncle Marty, let's go outside and play with Monty." His mind barely registered the voice that slowly made its way through his foggy mind. All he could see were those beautiful mismatched eyes merely inches away. All he could smell was his partners perfume mixed with the unique scent he had come to only be able to describe as Kensi. His eyes blinked rapidly as he felt a tug at his pant leg.

"Come on, Uncle Marty." The slightly whiny voice was getting clearer now, finally reaching his brain. Only then Deeks remembered where he was and who else was there. He closed his eyes for a brief second, letting out a breath that he didn't know he had held. When he opened his eyes again he found his partner still looking at him. He let out a frustrated breath when the tugs on his pants were getting more forceful.

"You promised me that we would play with him before dinner."

"Yeah, I'm uh… I'm coming," was all he managed to get out. God knows, he loved that kid but right now…ugh.

She looked up at him, knowing that this moment or whatever it had been was over. She let out a sigh and shot him a small smile. "Go," she breathed out.

He slowly nodded his head. In that millisecond before he finally had to turn away from her, his fingers grazed over her cheeks in a feather light touch that sent jolts of electricity through his body. And judging from her widened eyes and the not so subtle gasp leaving her lips she had felt the exact same thing.

********** 3_ HOURS LATER_ **********

They were all seated on his patio, split up into little groups that were having animated conversations.

To his left sat Carrie, his best friend from childhood, the little sister he never had, being the amazing friend that she was and not budging while Callen and Sam tried to coax embarrassing stories about him out of her.

Opposite of him he spotted Hetty and Carrie's mother Helen talk about some kind of tea. The two women that had been more of a mother figure in his life than his actual mother.

To his right Deeks saw Nell and Eric tell Ben, his best friend from law school, about some new technology that apparently was to die for.

He still remembered the day when he had set up Ben and Carrie for a blind date. Never in his life had he met two people that were as compatible as them. Both had a difficult upbringing, both had fought to get out, both had succeeded and were on steady career paths when they had met. They were both passionate about bringing justice to those who deserved it. Both were big time lawyers.

The power couple that managed to have it all. Their happiness had finally reached its peak when they had welcomed their beautiful daughter Emma into this world almost three years ago. On the same day they had made Deeks the happiest and proudest person on earth by asking him to be her godfather.

Deeks sighed and took another sip of his beer. Sometimes he was a little jealous of them. Just because they really made it work: success, marriage, parenthood, they even helped out with charities. They were perfect. And they made it seem so easy, too.

He longed for that, too, in those rare moments when he let his fantasies roam freely around his head. He saw a big house with a white picket fence, a big tree in the backyard with a swing attached to it and a tree house that he had built for his kids, maybe even a swimming pool. He wanted a dog, but not those little rat like "dogs" that fit into a handbag, no, a real dog. Monty Jr. maybe. And of course he saw the kids. He wanted at least two, preferably one girl and one boy, but who was he to be picky. He knew that he would love them either way. But the one thing that was almost always missing in those fantasies was the woman on his side. In his craziest moments he had actually seen Kensi leaning into him, looking at little boy running around that had his unruly hair, but her beautiful eyes, all while she was cradling her growing belly with her hands. But of course that was just a wild fantasy.

While he was thinking about his partner he realized that she was nowhere in sight. He knew that she wouldn't have left without saying goodbye so she ought to be around somewhere. He got up and walked back into his living room. Emma had been fast asleep on his new couch for almost an hour. He checked the kitchen but there was still no sign of his partner and from the entrance of his kitchen he could see that there was no light on in the bathroom. That only left two options: his study or his bedroom. So naturally he went to his study because get real, people, what would Kensi possibly want in his bedroom? A few seconds later he found out that he had been wrong when a quick glance in his study told him that she wasn't there either. With a frown he walked to the end of the hall and opened his bedroom door.

What he saw made a smile spread out on his lips. Kensi sat on his bed with her back to him, her hands in her lap, gazing into space.

"Whatcha doing in here, partner?" He asked her playfully. "Wanna test the new bed?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, even though he knew that she couldn't see him.

She let out a snort. "Yeah, right. Maybe in your dreams, Deeks." Now that wasn't completely untrue. She stood up and placed the photo frame that she had previously held in her hands back on the sideboard that was placed against the wall opposite of the bed. "You didn't give me a tour of your new house, so I showed myself around." She smiled sweetly at him, standing at what she deemed a safe distance of a few feet away from him.

"Nice photo," she said and nodded to the photo on the sideboard before adding, "Weird place to keep it though."

It was indeed a nice photo. It had been taken at a team bonding night a while ago when they had all gone bowling together. That whole gang had been there, even the wonder twins and Hetty. After a few rounds of drinks Nell had asked some guy to take a picture of them. The men were all standing in a row next to each other while the ladies were in front of them. As it happened to be Kensi was directly in front of Deeks so he had seized the moment and had wrapped his arms around her, with his hands folded over her stomach, pulling her into his body. When the guy was snapping the pictures Deeks had tickled her stomach a little bit. Her head had shot up in surprise and she had turned her body a little bit so that she could look up at him. He was grinning down at her while she was laughing whole-heartedly. The fact that he was still alive was a testament to just how much alcohol she had had. God, he loved that picture.

"That was a fun night," he mused, smiling fondly at the memory. "I keep it here because the living room is still kind of a mess and I didn't know where else I could put it."

She was about to retort something when Carrie came in, "Hey, here you guys are. Hope I'm not interrupting anything." She winked at Deeks, who just rolled his eyes in reply.

"Well, whatever, I just came to tell you that Ben and I are leaving, Em's been asleep for an hour already and we still have to drive home. I think the others are planning on leaving, too, actually."

"Ah, I see how it is. You dine 'n dash, huh? Good to know that nothing has changed." Deeks let out a loud laugh.

Carrie's eyes narrowed. "That was one time, Marty," she hissed. "And if I remember correctly you were there with me." She grinned at him.

He grinned back at her. "You always had an impeccable memory, Mrs. Houston. But what you don't know is that I went back to the diner later that night, came up with a brilliant excuse and paid the bill including a very generous tip." He winked at her.

"Huh and I always thought you were a badass. Guess I was wrong." She scoffed.

"Sorry to disappoint." He winked at her. "Come on, I'll bring you to the door."

10 Minutes and several hugs and handshakes later he closed the front door and sighed dramatically. "Now that was an interesting evening."

"Alright, Deeks you wanna start in the kitchen and I get all the stuff from outside?" Kensi asked. She had offered to stay a little longer to help him clean up.

"Nah, I can do all of that tomorrow. I'm not sure if you would be a big help in cleaning this mess anyways."

She narrowed her eyes at him, putting her hands on her hips. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He held up his hands defensively in front of him. "Easy there, tiger. I'm just saying that judging by the looks of your house you don't know the slightest thing about cleaning."

"I'm not _that_ bad." She grumbled.

"Kens, you have grandma dust bunnies that have two younger generations of dust bunnies to keep them company." He laughed.

She snorted in reply. "Now you're just completely exaggerating. Right?"

He just chuckled. "Come on, sit down. My new couch is awesome." He had settled on said couch and patted the leather next to him.

She followed his lead and sat down next to him, leaning back into the cushions. Damn, he was right; this new couch was indeed pretty awesome. She let out a content sigh and closed her eyes.

"You know you were pretty great with Emma tonight." Deeks broke the silence.

"Mhh, thanks. She's a great kid. And you're amazing with her. She really loves you, you know. Told me that you are the greatest uncle in the world when we were having our little princesses-only tea party." She chuckled at the memory, still keeping her eyes closed.

"Yeah, she's the best. If I ever have a child that's half as great as she is, I'll be absolutely happy."

He looked over to his partner. Her face and her whole body posture were completely relaxed and now that the day was coming to an end she seemed to be completely at ease. At some point in the evening she had gotten cold and Deeks had given her one of his hoodies that was much too big for her. But somehow she still managed to pull off that look, and oh boy, she had looked as beautiful as always, if not even more so.

Now that they were sprawled out on his couch, he couldn't keep the smile off his lips. It had taken them a long time to be so comfortable in each other's presence, or rather it had taken her a really long time to open up to him and be comfortable and relaxed and not always on-guard when he was around her.

"Hey, Kens?"

"Mhhh?"

"You still with me?" He chuckled.

Her reply came out as a mumble, "Yeah."

"You know, I uh… I really meant what I said earlier." He started off, knowing that he was treading on thin ice.

She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly against the light, before turning her head to him, resting it on one of the cushions. A small smile was gracing her lips. "And what's that? You say a lot of things."

"Huh, really?" He smirked at her, before his smirk turned into an almost shy smile. Something that she hadn't seen often on him before. He took a deep breath, looking directly in her eyes. "I meant it when I said that you're beautiful."

Her smile grew wider. Before her brain had registered what she was doing she had leant up to him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. She could feel him gasp against her lips, clearly shocked by her sudden move. And quite frankly, so was she. But once again, she felt like she didn't really care. She didn't care that her brain was scolding her right now for kissing him. She only cared about the butterflies in her stomach that were back in party mode. She only cared about the way his stubble brushed against her chin and sent shivers through her body. She only cared about how right it felt to touch his oh so perfect lips with hers.

"Thank you," she mumbled against his lips before pressing another kiss against them. She looked up to meet his eyes. And what she saw made the butterflies turn up the music and dance just a little harder. She saw wonder, shock, happiness, contentment and maybe even a little bit of love flash through his brilliant blue eyes. He put his arm around her, holding her effectively in place before pressing his lips to hers in short and sweet kiss. She sighed in contentment and placed her head in the crook of his neck, her whole body curled up at his side.

A few minutes passed before Deeks broke the silence again, "Do you wanna stay here tonight?"

She didn't have to think about his question and nodded quickly. There was no place in this world where she'd rather be tonight or any other night for that matter. Even though she knew that she wasn't ready for declarations of their feelings for each other or taking their relationship to a more physical level. This was perfect, being close to him, stealing an occasional kiss maybe. She wanted to do this right; there was just no room for messing up her partner/relationship with him, there was just too much on the line. She was ready to take it further but only one step at a time. There was no rush, they would have all the time in the world to figure out their feelings for each other.

"Hey Deeks?" She mumbled against his neck.

"Yeah?"

"Do they always call you Marty?"

He knew that she was talking about Carrie, Ben and Helen, and of course little Emma. And she was right, to them he had always been Marty and not just Deeks.

"Uh yeah, being called Deeks really just started when I joined LAPD, I guess."

"Do you like it better to be called Marty?"

He thought about her question for a moment. "I guess I've really gotten used to being just Deeks over the years, but it's nice to be Marty from time to time. It reminds me of who I am and where I came from. Only a few people call me by my first name and I just know that those few people really know and love me for who I am. So I guess being called Marty assures me that I'm actually being loved and appreciated."

He could feel her lips curve into a smile against his skin.

"You ready to test my new bed, princess?" He asked playfully.

She nodded and they got up. "But no funny business, mister, or I'll kick you out of the bed."

"Don't worry, Fern, I'll keep my paws to myself."

20 Minutes later they had changed and gotten ready for bed. They were both lying on their sides, facing each other, only inches apart. Neither of them was able to keep the happy smiles off their faces.

He leaned forward and pressed another achingly sweet kiss to her lips, lingering for a few more seconds before whispering against the curve of her lips, "Good night, Kensi."

"Good night, Marty."

**The End**


End file.
